by Rev. Bill Gupton

Warm fires. Friendly faces. Eggnog. Carols. The smell of green branches when all outside is gray. These are some of the things that make the season, and its memories.

At our church, we have a few traditions that you will find sprinkled throughout this month’s newsletter: The Clara Barton Guild dinner. My family’s Holiday Open House. Christmas Caroling for all ages. And of course, our annual Christmas Eve Candlelight Service. That night, our sanctuary will be filled with folks who come for the wonderful music, the glow of the candles, and most of all the warmth and spirit of community. I hope you will be among them, that evening, and that you will also partake of the many other opportunities to celebrate the season with the Heritage family this year. (There are even two worship services on December 24!)

As we celebrate the holiday season, however, don’t forget that this time of year can be bittersweet for many people. Reminders of loss – whether recent or long-ago – can be painful. Loneliness can be profound. Shorter daylight hours and colder temperatures challenge even the most cheerful among us. Let us remember to be gentle and compassionate to one another. Be sure to offer an extra hug, an extra smile, and to go the extra mile, not only with those in our Heritage community, but also co-workers, people on the streets, and strangers whom you meet in the store (you will be in the store, I am sure). Offer the Love that is the Spirit of our church to everyone, of every age, this holiday season.

Happy Holidays! I’ll see you at church!

Namaste,
Rev. Bill

by Rev. Bill Gupton

Many of you probably don’t even know that from 1999-2002, prior to coming to Heritage Church, I was the minister of a small, also historically Universalist, UU congregation in North Olmsted, Ohio. At some point during that tenure – some November, no doubt – I was handed a piece of paper with a reading on it titled “Blessings.” I still have it, lovingly filed away under “Thanksgiving,” and thus I happened across it this week as I was preparing for upcoming services. While the numbers it quotes may have changed slightly in the course of the last two decades, I submit to you that the spirit of the text (as well as the profound inequities it references) remain as true today as they were back at the “turn of the century.”

I offer it to you as you prepare for the season of Thanksgiving.

“Blessings”

If you can attend a church, mosque, synagogue or meeting house without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death – you are more blessed today than three million of your fellow human beings.

If you woke up this morning enjoying good, reasonable, or even decent health – consider that more than a million people on this planet will die of various diseases this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation – remember in your prayers the 500 million people in the world who have.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep – you are richer than 75% of the world.

If you have money in the bank, or in your wallet, or spare change in your pocket or a dish somewhere – you are among the world’s top 8% in wealth.

If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them, or even reach out to touch them gently on the shoulder – do so. You are blessed to be able to offer love, support, and a healing touch.

If you can read this message, know that someone is thinking of you – and furthermore, that more than two billion of your human sisters and brothers cannot read at all.

Count your blessings – and pass along to others as many of them as you can. Bless the world.

In love and gratitude for all that we share in this richly blessed community which we have inherited, and which we call our Heritage –

Namaste,
Rev. Bill

November 2017.

by Rev. Bill Gupton

It should come as no surprise that throughout history, at least here in the northern hemisphere, the time of year we are now entering has been associated with death and dying, with transitions, with the changes that come naturally as part of the cycle of life. The leaves are beginning to change colors and let go, dropping from the glorious trees for which they have spent the past several months drinking in the sun’s energy. The sun itself is getting lower on the horizon, and offering noticeably less light with each passing day. Animals are making their preparations for the winter, busily burying nuts, migrating, and so on. One very special, very old cat that hangs around outside our house seems to be preparing for what could be her last difficult winter season.

Culturally, we celebrate Halloween, the Day of the Dead, and other death-related holidays. Skeletons and other images profusely populate our public gathering places, seemingly having taken over places like Kroger and Target, even the Post Office.

As many of you know, I have long been an active participant in the Death Positive movement, a loosely knit organization of folks seeking to help Westerners and Americans in particular reclaim a positive relationship with death, integrating it into our finite lives in a healthy and positive way. (The term “Death Positive” is also a pun, pointing to the fact that each of us has an inherited gene that gives us the medical condition of being “death positive.”)

My interest in this aspect of human existence brings many events and opportunities for education and conversation to our Heritage community, particularly at this time of year. You might want to come to church for an informal conversation about death and dying at our Death Café Cincinnati on October 30 (https://deathcafe.com/deathcafe/5199/). You might be interested in viewing (or re-viewing) the outstanding 1971 film Harold and Maude, this month’s offering in our Death Positive Film Series, on October 27. You might want to check out the latest news about the green burial sanctuary we are starting, Heritage Acres Memorial Sanctuary, at https://www.heritageacresmemorial.org/. You’ll be hearing more about Heritage Acres at church in the next few weeks. And certainly, don’t miss our deeply moving All Souls Sunday worship service, when we lift up and honor those loved ones who have died in the past year, on November 5.

I also want to let you know that in mid-September, I—along with a few other members of the Heritage Church End-of-Life Ministry Team—took an intensive, 30-hour training seminar that ended with our certification as “death midwives.” As such, we are available to offer compassionate, spiritual, holistic care and comfort to those in our congregation, and their loved ones, who are dying. In fact, the church’s End-of-Life Ministry Team, now composed of roughly a dozen profoundly caring individuals with a wide range of skills and training, stands ready to assist families facing life’s final transition before, during and after the death of a loved one. This is just one of the many unique ministries that sets Heritage Church apart from most other Unitarian Universalist—or non-UU—congregations.

It is a blessing and a privilege to serve as your Senior Minister!

Namaste,
Rev. Bill

October 2017.